Some questions regarding Monk Skill and Support Gems

I'm at the Atlas and finally have enough Jeweller's Orbs to start making a more meaningful Invoker build. Currently, I'm running this build.

(Note: I do not yet have the last 4 Ascendancy nodes, or the nodes past the Quarterstaff passives, but the selection in the link is what is planned.)

However, there are several things about PoE2's mechanics that are still unclear:

1. What constitutes "using"? For example, "Unbreakable" and "Wind Wave" can support "Charged Staff", but it's not clear if it works while the ("Charged Staff") buff is active or when attacks trigger "Charged Shockwave".

Another example: "Tempest Bell" with "Ruthless" Support: is the "5th use" the "Bell Impact" only, each "Shockwave", or a combination of both?


2. Does "Close Combat" Support work based off of activation or when it hits? For example: if I use it with an ability that dashes, will I get the benefit if I dash from outside of 3.5 meters?


3. What is the difference, if any, between "killed by Hits" (e.g. "Life Bounty"), a "culling strike" (e.g. "Life Drain", "Soul Drain"), and a "killing blow" (e.g. "Shock Siphon")?


4. How exactly does "Primal Armament" work? Does "25% more Weapon Elemental damage" only apply to elemental damage on the weapon itself, or does elemental conversion benefit from it (e.g. "Falling Thunder" converts 60% and 100% physical damage to Lightning)?


5. Does "Siphoning Strike" with "Elemental Focus" and "Endless Circuit" work? "Elemental Focus" removes the ability for "Siphoning Strike" to apply ailments, but "Endless Circuit" says consuming Shock has a 25% of reapplication...but would this be negated by "Elemental Focus"?


6. Speaking of which, almost all of the Skill Gems I am using convert physical damage to lightning.

a. Does "Elemental Focus" even make sense for "Siphoning Strike"? It is a recommended gem, but "Siphoning Strike" appear to do weapon damage, which in my case is primarily physical.

b. Does this mean that Iron Runes are BiS for my weapon Quarterstaff?


8. Similar question for armor: assuming maxed Resistances, is Iron Rune BiS, or is Body Rune better?


7. Is Accuracy a useful stat for melee?

I main Cold Invoker :

1: Not totally sure but if they are compatible those Support will work when Charged Staff is in effect regardless if you attack of not with it . Keep in mind Charged Staff only apply to the current weapon , in case you wish to go dual at some point ( that's why i stopped using the skill ) .

1b : I would say trigger the 5th time you spent mana on the Skill , not every 5th Bell Shockwave . Check the advanced info of the skill if Ruthless is mentionned in the Shockwave sub-menu .

2 : I think CC should work on Dash as the hit animation only take place after the movement animation . There's no way to verify that other than testing on a Boss the damage you get with & without that support Gem on a Dash skill .

3 : Probably none .

4 : Primal Armament buff elemental damage after Phys->Elem Conversion so it does work with a pure Phys stick .

5 : The skill not being able to produce Ailment anymore doesn't stop it from Consuming Ailment that were already there . Endless Circuit could go both ways then , it's not clear on paper i agree .

6a : Siphoning Strike fully convert Dmg to Lightning . That skill is meant to be used on target already shocked , so yeah Elem Focus make sense . But don't bother too much about Gems recommendation you have to experiment yourself ^^

6b : Next update we'll be able to remplace the socketed Runes on Gear so you'll be able to experiment that by yourself , some of the Soul Cores can be better than Runes depending on your passives ( or lack of passives ) .

7 : i play CI so +Life is not even on the table lol . Personally given all the sweet passive Invoker can get from high value Evasion on body armor ( +spirit , +ES , double Evasion ) i want it to be as high as it can be .

8 : No it is not , you'll have 200 Dex in Endgame so Accuracy won't be an issue . But Monk got an easy access to a lot of +Accuracy buffs , and Falcon Dive can be a great buff if you wish to go for it ( +Attack Speed per 250pts of Accuracy ) .

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Ashyev#5110 wrote:

I main Cold Invoker :

1: Not totally sure but if they are compatible those Support will work when Charged Staff is in effect regardless if you attack of not with it . Keep in mind Charged Staff only apply to the current weapon , in case you wish to go dual at some point ( that's why i stopped using the skill ) .

1b : I would say trigger the 5th time you spent mana on the Skill , not every 5th Bell Shockwave . Check the advanced info of the skill if Ruthless is mentionned in the Shockwave sub-menu .

I did not check Ruthless since I do not have that Gem and am not really doing a Stun build, but I did check the Advanced Info, and Unbreakable, Energy Barrier, and Wind Wave do appear in the Buff section. It's just that there's no visual feedback for Unbreakable and Energy Barrier, so I can't quite tell if it's working. And I don't think I've ever seen Wind Wave trigger...but I have died recently to being stun-locked. :\

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Ashyev#5110 wrote:

3 : Probably none .

4 : Primal Armament buff elemental damage after Phys->Elem Conversion so it does work with a pure Phys stick .

I'm not so sure about these. The wording is not consistent throughout, which is what gives me pause.

For example, Life Drain triggers if you cull an enemy with the supported skill. You can cull an enemy with a skill that does a culling strike, meaning you insta-kill them if the (let's say Normal) enemy is at 30% or less health. But what if I kill an enemy with a single hit when they are at 40% health; does it count as a culling strike if they were above 30% health?

Primal Armament's wording is likewise strange in explicitly saying it applies to weapon elemental damage, which implies it applies before damage conversion from skills. Other abilities (e.g. Lightning Infusion) just refer to "supported attacks" without drawing attention to the weapon itself, hence, my confusion.

I added Primal Armament to Storm Wave (which is a strange skill, given it's basically a ranged attack listed as a melee AoE) and it seems to buff it, but without some kind of DPS meter, I'm not sure how to verify if it's actually working.

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Ashyev#5110 wrote:

5 : The skill not being able to produce Ailment anymore doesn't stop it from Consuming Ailment that were already there . Endless Circuit could go both ways then , it's not clear on paper i agree .

I just realized after checking the Advanced Info that Siphoning Strike cannot inflict Shock anyway, but I have seen Endless Circuit work when using it, so Elemental Focus should work.


Alas:

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Ashyev#5110 wrote:

6a : Siphoning Strike fully convert Dmg to Lightning . That skill is meant to be used on target already shocked , so yeah Elem Focus make sense . But don't bother too much about Gems recommendation you have to experiment yourself ^^

Siphoning Strike actually does weapon damage on hit; only the Shockwave trigger by consuming shock converts to Lightning, and only the Physical damage part, so Elemental Focus would only work on that part. I decided to use Heavy Swing to buff the Physical damage component.

Meanwhile, I discovered that Elemental Focus can support Invoker's "Elemental Expression". :O They really need to fix those support tooltips, as these do not appear in the list at all.

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Ashyev#5110 wrote:

7 : i play CI so +Life is not even on the table lol . Personally given all the sweet passive Invoker can get from high value Evasion on body armor ( +spirit , +ES , double Evasion ) i want it to be as high as it can be .

...Where does Invoker gain double Evasion?

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Ashyev#5110 wrote:

8 : No it is not , you'll have 200 Dex in Endgame so Accuracy won't be an issue . But Monk got an easy access to a lot of +Accuracy buffs , and Falcon Dive can be a great buff if you wish to go for it ( +Attack Speed per 250pts of Accuracy ) .

Thanks for pointing out Falcon Technique (and other suggestions); I think I will have enough spare points to grab it... :)

Double Evasion meaning +100% Evasion from Body Armor , it's close to the Herald cluster .

The only way to check DPS other than the DPS tooltip is to actually fight a Boss , buildup damage is indicated above the health bar .